Opening statement…
“We’re preparing for a South Carolina team that’s played seven games compared to our 15 games. They’ve had three different interruptions in their season. Their head coach, Frank Martin, has battled and beaten COVID on two occasions. Of course, Frank Martin battling anything, you know he’s going to come out on top. So we’re praying and happy for his health. This is a typical South Carolina team. They’re physical. They play hard. They defend as a team very well. They lead league in offensive rebounding. They’ve always been a team that was very difficult to run your offense against because they extend so much. When we’ve been able to beat them, we’ve been able to beat them with great point guard play, and guys being able to drive downhill. Samir Doughty, Jared Harper, J’Von McCormick, Isaac Okoro, matchups that can turn corners to get to the rim. So for us, our creators off the bounce are going to have to be good because it’s hard to run your stuff against South Carolina. Lawson and Cousinard were all-conference preseason guys. I may remind my guys as we go into some of these matchups, first of all, South Carolina returns pretty much five starters, four for sure. They’ve got a lot of their guys back. We didn’t have anybody preseason all-conference, and that’s fine. But I want to mention that to my guys, in the sense that we’ve got a ton to play for, both individually and as a team. So I think South Carolina is a team that is going to wind up being right there in the middle to the upper division of our league battling for one of those last spots. That’s how I see it right now. I know they don’t have as much work under their belt as some, but I think they’ve got the pieces to be able to get there. We’ve struggled at South Carolina and we’ve had some great wins at home against them. Since I’ve been at Auburn, I don’t remember for sure, but I think maybe my first SEC home win might have been against South Carolina. It was either Missouri or South Carolina. I don’t remember. But I do remember that we won the SEC regular season championship at home when the confetti almost came out of the rafters too soon, causing us a technical foul in a close game. So we’ll see if we can put two halves of basketball together this this time around on the road.”
On the challenge of a short turnaround…
“It’s a tough turnaround for the kids. I think the interesting part of it is, look, the kids are resilient and they’ll be fine. We’ll be fine for the game Saturday morning against South Carolina. We’ve had plenty of time to prepare and rest. South Carolina played an early Tuesday game, and they play a home Saturday game. So they’ve had more time to prepare and rest. But, we have enough. You get home on Wednesday night at 1:30-1:45. Who knows what time the kids get to sleep? You got to 7:30-7:45 COVID test the next morning. There’s three-four, four-five hours of sleep for sure. Then you practice yesterday. You’re limited in what you can do in that practice, and here we are going to practice today at 1:30 we leave at four o’clock. It’s ‘ready or not, here it comes.’ But we will be fine.”
On Sharife Cooper in his first few games…
“He’s done a great job. He’s a great quarterback. He’s got ability to do whatever he wants with either hand off of either leg. I think teams are going to make him try to settle for the 3 ball. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be settling with Sharife. He can really shoot it. He’s hard to handle at the rim. You’ve got to referee him all the way to the basket because he’s got the ability to float and stay in the air. People have always been able to block his shot because he’s six-feet tall, but he’s able to kind of stay with his shot and score tough 2s. That is one great difference maker for him. So as it relates to what you do offensively, it’s hard to not put it in his hands because he could score it and get it to others. So obviously, I think he’s done a really good job. You know, the other night when we ran out of gas, he had to play 36 minutes again. Allen Flanagan was in foul trouble. Allen’s my backup point guard. That was too many minutes. From a coaching standpoint, with Allen having four, maybe we could have put Jamal (Johnson) in there who hadn’t played point guard since the Ole Miss game, and that was just because he had to. So that hurt us a little bit down the stretch. I think Sharife has done really well. He’s led in our locker room. He’s not used to losing and neither am I.”
On South Carolina being better than their record…
“I think South Carolina is very capable of making a run this year. They’ve got a lot of dudes back. Frank (Martin) is a great coach. I’m not counting them out. Like I said, I think they’ve got a chance to be an NCAA tournament team this year. They’ve got to win some games obviously, but there’s a lot of games in front of them that they can win. I like their team.”
On the leadership Sharife Cooper has shown…
“I’d like to think we’re carving out a little niche at Auburn for fast, small, quick point guards. Whether it be Tahj Shamsid-Deen my first year or Jared Harper or J’Von McCormick and now Sharife Cooper and then somebody in the years to come, it’s been a position guys have done really well. I put the ball in my point guard’s hands and let them go play. As far as Sharife being a leader, it’s called an Alpha dog. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how big you are. That’s who he is. He’s always had that Pied Piper effect to be able to lead both in his personality, in his friends, in his high school – they won a national championship at McEachern High School when he was a junior. He was a school leader. He was a community leader. The fact that he has only played four games with us and he missed 72 practices and a few months, he’s still stayed as connected to players as he possibly could, encouraging them and leading. It’s great to have him out there.”
On South Carolina’s AJ Lawson and Jermaine Couisnard…
“When those two guys are on, they win. When they score 80 points or more for Frank (Martin), they’re like 60-5. Those two kids, what do they do best? They score. So when they’re scoring, they win. We’ve got to do a good job of recognizing that and do the best job we can to make the other guys score and not let those guys go off. But if Couisnard and Lawson can see it, they can make it.”
On how Justin Powell is doing…
“The only time we see Justin is when we COVID test because of the concussion protocol. He’s day-to-day. They didn’t let him come to practice as part of the concussion protocol. I think he’s getting closer to moving again, but he’s not there yet. Mentally, he’s struggling because he wants to be out there. But you can’t be out there if you’ve still got symptoms and you’ve got headaches. He’s doing the best he can.”
On the game plan if teams trap Sharife Cooper…
“Arkansas did it a couple times, and JT Thor hit a 3, Jaylin Williams got it in the middle of the floor and gave a bounce pass for a dunk for Babatunde (Akingbola). If they do it, that means it’s 4-on-3. So you’ve got to be able to have the spacing to be able to attack out of 4-on-3. It bothered us a little bit against Arkansas, but it wasn’t the game-changer. I’m sure teams are going to try and trap the ball out of his hands, and that means there are four offensive players out there against three defensive players. But the key when that happens is to attack and take advantage of the numbers.”
On motivation with no NCAA tournament…
“You take Arkansas in the second half. Arkansas has to win that game almost (to make the NCAA tournament). I even said it before the game. They’re starting to look at, ‘We’ve got to get this one in order to go to the tournament.’ They played like it. That is an advantage for our opponents. Frank Martin has put it on (AJ) Lawson and (Jermaine) Couisnard – ‘If we’re going to the tournament, then this is what has got to happen.’ That’s a great motivator to play through pain, play through fatigue and do the things you’ve got to do to win. We’re not going to the tournament this year, and we don’t have that motivation. But the motivation for us is to be able to win, to be able to grow, to be able to improve. For me, it was a missed opportunity at Arkansas, to win at Bud Walton for the third time since I’ve been here. It could have been two in a row. We haven’t done that I don’t think ever. Making history. We haven’t won at South Carolina the last three times we’ve been there. We’ve got to play a Missouri team that’s already beaten Oregon. They’ve beaten Illinois. They’re ranked in the 30s in the NET. They’re going (to the tournament). They’re one of the best teams in our league. That’s going to be an opportunity Tuesday. Then we’ve got to go to Baylor and play the No. 2 team in the country. We’ve still got a lot to play for, but the one thing we don’t have is we don’t have the ability to go, ‘Hey, this is about seeding. This is about competing for a championship.’ We don’t have that opportunity this year.”
On teams getting more physical with Sharife Cooper…
“I thought he handled it great (against Arkansas). He doesn’t complain. He’s a tough kid. He gets bounced. He gets hit a lot. He’s always gotten hit when he’s played, so that’s nothing new for him.”